Intentio insights

A space for practical, informative content across health, fitness, performance, training, recovery, and physical development. Readers can expect clear, evidence-informed insights, coaching perspectives, and useful guidance designed to help people better understand their training, improve how they move and perform, and make more informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.

All Posts

RPE in Practice: How to Use Perceived Exertion to Manage Load — and Where It Falls Short

Coaches and athletes are always balancing two demands: applying enough stress to drive adaptation without tipping into breakdown. Most practitioners lack access to blood lactate analysers or GPS units every session. What everyone has is the ability to ask: how hard did that feel? That question is the foundation of RPE — a simple, low-cost method of gauging training intensity and managing load. Used well, it gives coaches real-time information about how an athlete is toleratin

James Farr

Apr 13 min read

The Science Finally Said What Good Coaches Have Known for Years

The American College of Sports Medicine has published the most comprehensive evidence synthesis on resistance training ever produced — 137 systematic reviews, more than 30,000 participants. It updates guidance that has shaped exercise prescription for the past 17 years. And for anyone who has been paying attention, its findings are both validating and quietly damning of the mainstream fitness industry. The headline conclusion is this: most people are being significantly under

James Farr

Mar 213 min read

Stop Blaming Lactate. It’s Been Framed.

Why the burn you feel during hard exercise has nothing to do with lactic acid — and what’s actually happening inside your muscles. Ask most people what causes that burning sensation mid-sprint or during a tough set, and they’ll blame lactic acid. It’s been repeated so often it feels like fact. But the science has been clear for decades: lactate is not the problem. It’s actually a useful substance your body recycles as fuel. The blame has been landing on the wrong thing enti

James Farr

Mar 194 min read

"You Don't Have to Be an Athlete to Train Like One"

Strength and conditioning has a branding problem. For most people, it conjures images of elite athletes, sports science labs, and training programmes built for performance. The reality is far more straightforward, and far more relevant to everyone. At its core, strength and conditioning is the practice of systematically improving the physical qualities that underpin whatever you want to do in life. That includes strength, power, speed, endurance, mobility, and resilience. For

James Farr

Mar 121 min read